Thin Line Between Love And Hate

I don't know if I get the meaning right, but at first I thought that it dealt with the story of a woman whose husband always comes back late, never telling her where he has been. She never asks, anyway. Everytime he comes back late, she keeps being sweet, kind to him, so that the husband never "gives a second thought": to him, she's a devoted wife. Even when he hurts her, she does not say a word : she's keeping everything inside. But she suffers. And that's when she commits suicide. That is how I understand the fact that she's in a hospital, bandaged from foot to head : she may have tried to jump from a building or something. And she herself is shocked by what she has done (which can be explained by the fact that a lot of people who commit suicide don't really want to die, they just want "a new start"). But I'm aware that some details don't fit with that. For example, with the chorus saying : "it's a thin line between love and hate", you would expect that the love and hate is between the man and his wife, though it may refer to self-love and self-loathing (it's far-fetched, isn't it?) Then, why the line "...that'll really really hurt you one day" : if the man is such an ***, then I can't see why his wife's suicide would "hurt him" that much : one would have expected the woman to try to kill her husband or something... Anyway, there IS something I don't understand ! (maybe the song is about two women ?? A mother and a daughter ? But then who tries to kill who ???? arrrgrh)

I was told, and when I listen it seems to fit, that the lyrics were written about a woman in an abusive relationship that set fire to her husband and it went in the papers and the writer used this as the basis for the song lyrics e.g. "THE SWEETEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD COULD BE THE MEANEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD IF YOU MAKE HER THAT WAY YOU KEEP HURTING HER .... BANDAGED FROM FOOT TO HEAD IN A STATE OF SHOCK JUST THAT MUCH FROM BEING DEAD" and originally the line read "I SAW HIM IN THE HOSPITAL "

The line actually goes "I see YOU'RE in the hospital", not "I see her in the hospital".

The last poster is right. It's not "I see her in the hospital", it's "I see ya in the hospital". The man keeps coming home late, cheating, being abusive to the woman. One day she snaps and attacks him, putting him in hospital. Only then does he realise that his behaviour has made her "the meanest woman in the world".

Fabulous song. Quite original at the time of release. BTW have you guys seen the Martin Lawrence movie, "Thin line between love and hate" It kind of tells a different yet similar story. check it out

This song is one that can lift your spirits a little when you are in an Abusive relationship, because there is nothing better than hearing about a women getting revenge on her abuser.The first thing that caught my ear about this song was the quote "I guess actions speak louder than words" Oh, how true. So I guess my interpretation of this song is, A man was an Abuser and didn't even realise what effect he was having on his wife until her actions spoke louder than her words. Great work!!! Love it.

And that the damn truth

About a guy who has been a bastyard to a woman, how she's hurt him back. "You couldn't believe a woman could do something like this", but she has; women can be just as strong as men.

This is an old song by the Persuaders -- and the Persuaders' version is THE version of this song. I am a Pretenders fan and I love the album "Learning To Crawl," but this song was never done better than by the original group. Look up the Soul Train video of it on YouTube.

The lead singer sang it in first person -- HE was the abusive, unfaithful jerk, who eventually gets his ass kicked by his woman who has been hurt one too many times.

The surreal thing about the Soul Train vid is the couples slow-dancing to it in the foreground. This just isn't one of those songs. It's dark, it's deep, and it has a message.

Clever way of saying there is no line at all between love and hate.